VILLA MOMENTS

It's a football fan's prerogative to highlight the good bits and banish the bad bits, especially when it comes to local rivalries.

So when Aston Villa supporters think of the Second City derby, there are many highlights they recall with fondness and lowlights deliberately lost in the mist of time.

Let's focus on the positive.

Over the years these Brum showdowns have caused the claret and blue faithful to run the whole gamut of emotions.

Here we look at 5 moments that still bring a smile to the faces of Villa fans.

Five alive!

There is a photo that captured the unbridled joy of Villa Park when Villa thrashed Blues 5-1 on April 20 2008.

It is that one, right there! Look up. John Carew is bigger than me and you, so you'll have to look up, to see the jubilant ball boy swept up in the striker's arms.

He wasn't the only one feeling uplifted, the stadium was bouncing as Carew and Ashley Young scored braces and Gabby Agbonlahor also notched to inflict misery on Alex McLeish's Blues.

Villa were rampant that day and having hit four past Bolton and six against Derby it took the scoring of Martin O'Neill's team to 15 goals in three matches.

Oh, in case you forgot the score against Blues, here's Big John with a quick reminder...

(Image: John Carew Twitter)

I just don't like them

Growing up in Gullspang, a small corner of Sweden, Olof Mellberg won't have known too much about the intensity of Villa-Blues derbies.

Until he played in them. Then he quickly developed a dislike of Birmingham City as strong as anybody born a stone's throw away from Witton Lane.

In fact it was probably a throw that did it, when his throw in was by Peter Enckelman and it cranked up the anti-Villa animosity inside St Andrew's in September 2002.

Subsequently when Mellberg was asked about Villa's near neighbours, he had this to say: “I just feel, I’ve got the feeling, that I just don’t like them.

“That’s just the feeling I get from the whole club and the fans. My feelings from the games.

“It is the biggest derby I have played and derbies are probably the biggest games overall in club football so Birmingham City is not an option for me, no.”

Much ado about nutting

Now let's make this clear from the off, we don't condone violence. Not even against Robbie Savage!

But at a time when Villa had very little to shout about in terms of Second City bragging rights, Dion Dublin's moment of madness encapsulated the frustrations of the claret and blue faithful.

Having lost 3-0 at St Andrew's in the Enckelman encounter, Villa were 2-0 down at home to Blues in the return match at Villa Park.

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Savage was being Savage, winding up opponents as Steve Brue's Blues did the double over Villa.

As for Dion, he did the Dublin over Savage, dropping the nut on the blond Welshman.

It wasn't big and it wasn't clever, but rumour has it some Villa fans thought it was a little bit amusing.

Gift of the Gab

Gabby Agbonlahor loves a derby goal - and those offensive chants about his mother have only served to motivate him down the years.

There's been some dramatic moments courtesy of the Brummie Villa fan, none more so than his last gasp winner in the Premier League clash at St Andrew's on November 11 2007.

Agent Ridgewell had already given the Villa fans a chuckle with an early own goal to open the scoring for his former club, but Mikael Forssell equalised just after an hour.

To add insult to o.g. to Liam, Gabby cleared a Ridgwell effort off the line just seconds before heading the decisive late goal past Maik Taylor from Ashley Young's cross at the other end.

Blues writer Colin Tattum summed it up like this: "Late heartbreak again for Blues - the winner came in the 87th minute - but joy for Agbonlahor and Villa as they clocked up their first away victory for six months, and what a place and what a way to do it."

Swivel on that

Villa fans still smirking from David O'Leary's on-pitch celebrations after Kevin Phillips sealed a 1-0 win at St Andrew's in October 2005, were positively beaming by the end of the return match.

A centre-half scoring an acrobatic wonder goal in front of a bouncing Holte End can have that effect.

Gary Cahill, the man who O'Neill would replace with Zat Knight, went down in claret and blue folklore with the sweetest of swivels that put the finishing touches to a 3-1 victory after a Milan Baros double and a goal back from Chris Sutton.

"I am delighted because this victory is important for a few reasons. It is a local derby, the win means we could be safe from relegation, and the goal is easily the best of my career," beamed Cahill.

"I am glad I didn't get my head on the ball instead because I wouldn't have got enough power to get a decent attempt on goal. I just tried to get as high as I could and get a good contact on the ball.

"I was falling to the floor just as the ball hit the back of the net and I was surprised. It is especially good that the goal came at the Holte End. I

"I was so pleased for the supporters."

Bully Elliott

It was a night when a five-star performance by Villa helped them complete a 7-0 aggregate victory over Blues.

Villa were mid-table in the top flight and their rivals were struggling near the foot of the old Division Two when they were paired in the second round of the League Cup in 1988-89.

Two nil up from the first leg at St Andrew's thanks to goals from Kevin Gage and Andy Gray, it was the second leg when Villa really hammered home their superiority.

It was a night to forget for 18-year-old Blues keeper Tony Elliott, whose debut got off to the worst possible start when Derek Mountfield headed past him after 45 seconds.

After 18 minutes, Villa were four up with Gage scoring twice and Ian Olney (that goal is pictured above) also on target, while Tony Daley completed the rout 20 minutes from time.

It was Elliott's one and only Blues appearance before he revived his career at Hereford, Huddersfield, Carlisle, Cardiff and Scarborough.

“I remember it well because a lad called Tony Elliott was in goal for Birmingham that day," recalled Mountfield.

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“He was actually called away from the refreshments kiosk to say he was playing because their keeper went down injured.

“It was his debut and I popped one in within 45 seconds of kick off. I met Tony about seven or eight years later when I walked into Carlisle.

“I was like ‘Hi, I’m Derek Mountfield’ and he said: ‘**** off, I hate you!’ and he explained that that was his debut and I’d ruined it by scoring in the first minute. So me and Tony had a little bit of banter about that."